My first damascus knives

[The_cutting_edge]

Hi all. this weekend I got to make my first damascus Knives. I started with a 14" X about 1 3/16" X 3/16" 1084 /15N20 random pattern bar from Dan Seaver. I wound up (on the recomendation of Bladsmth) cutting the bar in 2 peices and had some 1018 barstock welded on to make my full tang handles from. viola now have enough to make 2 knives just in case I screwed somthing up.
Knife # 1 is a boning style knife for my mom's fiance.

10.5" OAL with a 5 3/4" BL Hollow ground on the 10"wheel with a nice distal taper
Knife # 2 is a hunter/camp Knife

8"OAL 3.5"BL. also hollow ground on the 10" wheel with a distal taper.
my big drill bit kinda gave up wanting to cut for me so I wound up with 2 thro holes and 2 deep divots for weight reduction along with mt one pin and a thong tube hole
I was comtemplating trying a tapered tang on this one but I wussed out. I only have the contact wheel grinder and I wasnt confident I could keep it flat while tapering it
will be sending out for HT asap thanks for looking

 

[lonepine]

Sweet!

- Paul Meske, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin

 

[Carl_First_Timer]

When drilling that large of a hole you need to make pilot holes. (smaller diameter hole then move up to the larger drill)

 

[The_cutting_edge]

Thanks for the comments and that's a good tip cal, thanks for that.
I can't wait to get these back from HT so I can sand them out and etch to see the pattern. When I hold them in the right light the pattern shine giving me a tease of what's hiding in there.

 

[tryppyr]

I love working with damascus. As you said, it's fun working to obtain a particular look, and seeing that look revealed in the etch. Nothing else quite like it.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Looks great.
Read my post on the rust thread for tips on making sure the blade stays that way.

 

[The_cutting_edge]

Thanks guys. It was kind of nerve wracking working with such expensive material as this damascus. I'm just glad I didn't muck it up.

 

[The_cutting_edge]

Well another weekend and made some progress. got them both up to a 400 rough machine finish. I'll leave them here for HT. My bad luck, the fine folks at Knifemaker.ca are gone to a show in Kamloops (my old stompin' grounds) and wont be back untill may 9 so I'll mail it off around the first and they should get done and back to me quick.

Wanted to take a bunch of weight off the butt end of the boning knife so I joined 3 of the 4 large weight reduction holes with hack saw and files and I then filed closer to the front hole. brought the balance point right to the ricasso area. so once the handles are put on it should be decent.

went ahead and did a simple zig-zag filework pattern from the butt right up to about 1.5" from the tip.